1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the invention generally relate to presentation systems, and more particularly to presentation systems having associated controls that are at least capable of manipulating various aspects of the presentation environment.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, whenever someone prepares to give a presentation at an unfamiliar venue, he or she must adapt quickly to the environment found at the location where the presentation will be made. Depending on the size of the conference facility, hotel, or other corporate building, the speaker may find a wide range of devices and functionality available. The speaker either will bring a laptop or use one provided by the facility, each of which may differ from a “standard” laptop (since there is no standard design for laptops). Once the speaker has the laptop or other computing device available, he or she must next determine the type of software available to use for the presentation. Although there are some software packages that are dominant in this area, they are by no means universal. The speaker must load the presentation onto the laptop, assuming the data storage media of the presentation file can be accommodated by the storage drives available on the laptop. Because the size of presentation files frequently exceeds the capacity of 3.5″ inch floppy discs (1.44 MB), compact discs (CDs) typically prevail. If the speaker does not have the right media, some sort of transfer must take place—either a new medium is used or another computer is used to transfer the data to the presentation computer. At this point, the speaker must hope that the projector and video signal from the computer are compatible with each other, and that they are correctly integrated. During the presentation, the speaker must rely on others to modify the environment at the appropriate times, e.g., someone to dim or raise the lights as presentations begin and end.
Additionally, when the speaker arrives at his hotel for his presentation, he or she often focuses (sometimes as if by surprise) on the need to practice the presentation before delivery. Not infrequently the speaker then calls the meeting organizer and asks if he or she can set up the presentation in the meeting room and make sure “everything is working OK.” The meeting organizer dutifully calls the hotel conference services manager and begs for the meeting room (which may or may not be available) and suitable AV equipment. Note that an LCD projector can rent for a significant cost. The speaker only rarely has available a system by which he or she can videotape the presentation for practice.
Due to the variety of hardware choices, the energy invested in learning the equipment often causes a corresponding drop in the quality of the presentation. The hardware is often owned by the facility and therefore the energy invested in learning about it is only useful in the short-term.